Ed Blakely won't be serving on storm preparedness commission in New York

Blakely drew fire for a string of comments disparaging New Orleans and its inhabitants

To all the New Orleanians who have been expressing outrage over the appointment of Ed Blakely, the city's widely criticized post-Katrina recovery director, to a commission to help New York prepare for future weather disasters such as Hurricane Sandy -- relax. It's not true.

The University of Sydney in Australia, where Blakely is now an honorary professor of urban policy at its United States Studies Centre, issued a news release last week saying that he was being appointed to one of three special commissions named by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after October's monster storm caused billions of dollars in damages.

The release said Blakely would be a member of the state's Respond Commission, examining New York's emergency response capabilities. However, when Cuomo's office announced the membership of the commission Wednesday, Blakely's name did not show up. Then on Wednesday, Brad Penuel, co-chairman of the commission to which Blakely supposedly had been appointed, told Gambit Weekly that Blakely will not be serving on it.

Penuel is director of the Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response at New York University.

The three commissions are supposed to help New York "improve its preparedness and response capabilities as well as to strengthen the state's infrastructure for the future."

Blakely, who was appointed by Mayor Ray Nagin in 2007 to lead New Orleans' recovery, departed after two years, leaving behind more critics than admirers. The critics said he claimed credit for recovery efforts that would have happened anyway.

He also drew fire for a string of comments disparaging the city and its inhabitants, such as describing some local residents as "buffoons." Then, a few months after leaving New Orleans, he gave an interview saying its people are racists, its city workers unsophisticated and its residents lazy.

He also expressed doubt about the city's long-term viability, opining that it "isn't likely" to be around in 100 years because the Mississippi River and another storm would probably join to "wipe New Orleans off the map."